Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense

Z – Zeveult

The Zeveult were a race of reptilian evil overlords who served as something of an arch-badguy in the Sassanid Cluster in the interstellar RPG Hyperspeed. The Zeveult are pretty bad dudes. Hyperspeed’s 3rd campaign, the Sassanid Cluster, features a very large spiralled star cluster that is ruled over by the evil Zeveult empire. Many of the ‘friendly’ races from other campaigns, such as the Fel (cute bluish green elephant people), the Trajan (intelligent lady-bugs), and several others that I cannot remember by name, are all ‘slave’ peoples, subjegated by the Zeveult. The Zeveult use as their enforcers a race of Rhino-men called the Rill, whose ships are giant can-openers, and will tear you a new one in no time at all.

The Zeveult come in two distinct varieties. Your run-of-the-mill Zeveult, who oversee the administrative tasks of ruling the galaxy with an iron fist, managing mooks, and doling out egregious punishment to the slave races, mostly resemble the Draconians from Dragonlance. Mean, toothy lizard people with something of a mouth on them. They’re polite enough so long as you express absolute subserviance to them, but the second you cross, or even mildly disappoint them, look forward to a bootheel on your neck. The other variety of Zeveult are the mystic and mysterious Arch-Zeveult, who are found on the Zeveult homeworlds. The Arch-Zeveult are more like chinese dragons and (possibly) have magic powers. They are very wise and cunning, and some of that wisdom may mask the evil of these philospher kings. They are far more affable than their lesser cousins, and their rewards for obedience are much greater. That does not make them any less dangerous or any less evil. The Sassanid Galaxy is theirs, and they know there is (nearly) nothing you can do to stop them.

Scan of back of box from http://www.planetmic.com. The Arch Zeveult is that dragon guy with the crystal ball down there in the lower right.

There are really only two ways that you can win in the Sassanid Cluster. Now, winning in Hyperspeed is based on gathering enough of the four core resources (metal, organics, water, and radiation*) and finding a habitable world that can be terraformed in advance of the arrival of the human colonists. You’re also, supposedly, trying to make the cluster a ‘safer’ place for humanity, but I could never determine how the cluster’s political landscape at the end of the game actually affected the ending you got. For instance, the easiest way to win the Ragnarok Cluster scenario was to befriend the Automata and the other supporters of “the Great Plan” (a plan to combat entropy by hitting the galactic reset button with another big bang; being Robots, the Automata are really taking the long view of things), and I got a good ending. Oops, sorry. Tangent Winning Sassanid:

-Being a Puppet of the Zeveult. You’re really going to be in it for the long haul, playing as a really bad guy here. Do it for too long, and you’ll be unable to choose any other route, as all of the slave races will come to hate you and refuse to deal with you. The Zeveult will ask you to act as their enforcer to punish disobedient slaves, generally in the form of intercepting and destroying ships in hyperspace belonging to the slave races. Sometimes, they will even ask you to destroy entire starbases (which in-game also means destruction of the world, sometimes the entire race). After each successful mission for the Zeveult, you’ll be given a trade permit. The Rill will ONLY trade with you if you have a permit. You can also exchange a permit for the resource of your choice. I don’t remember what the missions and rewards from the Arch-Zeveult were. Regardless, this is a long, arduous and bloody road to making a ‘safe’ slave colony for the humans to serve the Zeveult from. Also, it should be mentioned that the Rill don’t care whether you’re a bagman for the Zeveult or not, they’ll still pull you out hyperspace just for a laugh and carve you up.

-Kick the Zeveult’s ass. You are a big damn hero with a big damn spaceship. This one is hard, and it’s kind of a long-shot. You mess this up, you’re not going to get another chance. Well, you’ll get one last chance, but it won’t be a very good one. First you need to know that the Arch-Zeveult have nigh invincible shield generators, and your missiles can’t do enough damage on their own to destroy their star bases. You’re going to need a bigger gun. Enter the Collectors. The Collectors are mysterious quasi-pirate race who maintain the “Museum of Everything”. They have what you need to power-up your cannon, you have some sweet technology they’ve never seen before. First, they ask you for some missiles. This is fine, because you can always get more missiles from your home base. Second, they want your ship. They liked your missiles well enough to trade with you the first time, but if you want the gun, you’re going to have to give them your ship. Again, this is fine (kind of) since you can get more ships from your home base. You’re expected to leave your ship with them, return home in your hyperspeed escape pod, and come back to get the gun for your new ship. From here on out, things get REALLY tricky. If your gun’s upgraded component gets damaged or you lose your ship at any point here, you will need to get another ship and another gun component; the only way to get a second upgraded gun component is to give the collectors your base (no new ships, no free fuel refills, no new missiles; this is a bad deal) or beat the Collectors and hope you get some really nice stuff in the salvage (you always do) and hope that the rest of your ship is in working condition. Also, let me say that there is nothing more frustrating than collecting your gun upgrade for the first time and then immediately getting attacked by a Collector scavenger cube on your way to the real enemy.

You’ve got your new big gun, it’s time bring it. This gun is a beast. One by one, the Zeveult homeworlds fall, and their massive wealth of resources are yours for the taking. With their elder dragon emperors dead, the regular Zeveult cower at your arrival. They beg for mercy, and you can send them packing. Literally. World by world, you can banish them from galaxy. The freed slave races will hail you as a saviour and ally themselves with humanity. A winner is you!

Good luck finding it. It was old enough that it was never released in any cd format. You’ll probably have to do some serious scouring of the net to find it. The guy I got the image from has about the only site on the entire net devoted to it, and has copies of it digitally, but he keeps them behind a wall and requires a part of the original game manual to access them.